"If you're talking to a defensive staff, you want to know what they thought were the critical issues in terms of defending," Coughlin said. "Not only how did they go about it, (but) how good was it, what would you have done differently, how do you assign responsibilities to the option game? And then you take for example what we've faced, and very few times is the ball pitched, but the dive kills you. So how do you defend it; how are you defending it?"

The Giants were an all-around disappointment on defense in 2012, following up their Super Bowl season with a unit that couldn't rush the passer and wound up 31st in the league.

"We'll definitely be better. We'll definitely have our thoughts about how we are going to scheme to defend," Coughlin said. "But again, it's a difficult scheme, and the people who do it have good players, whether you are talking about Carolina, whether you are talking about Philadelphia, whether you are talking about Washington. They've got good players doing it. ... Do I think we'll be better? Yeah."